Welcome back. Other celebrity guests I had the opportunity to meet at this convention were voice actors Tony Oliver, Sonny Strait, Jessica Straus, and Anime comic book writer Tommy Yune. They were all nice.

In addition to the subject of Power Rangers, Tony Oliver had a Q&A session. Not only was he the voice of Saba, the White Ranger’s talking sword, he was also a writer and producer of the series. When Tony presented the pilot script, he had no idea that the show was going to get this big. The first clue that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would take off was when he was showing footage of the version from Tokyo with music to kids here in the U.S. and it was a huge success.

Tony Oliver has been a voice actor for 25 years, mostly in Anime shows like Robotech and Lupin the 3rd. The show he’s most proud of was a dramatic Anime series called Flag and one he wished he had gotten to work on was Cowboy Bebop. Basically, Tony thinks that the best part about being in Anime is the storytelling and depth they contain.

Tony Oliver has had great convention experiences and loves meeting fans.

Sonny Strait also had a Q&A session and mentioned that Anime Festival was one of his most favorite ones to attend. One of the biggest highlights was when Sonny talked about his latest series, Dragonball Z Kai. (He was the voice of Krillin.) He said, “The Nickelodeon version is great, if you’re seven. It’s highly edited.” So Sonny didn’t want anyone to judge the series based on that alone. He did mention another version of Dragonball Z Kai that’s more for an older audience on the CW network and Adult Swim, which is so much better without the extra editing.

Sonny Strait’s idol is Mel Blanc, who voiced the Looney Tunes. His father also liked imitating voices, like Donald Duck, which was a great influence on him. Sonny was hilarious with his impessions of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. They were right on.

Check my blog for part 3, when I’ll be talking about Dan Southworth and Reuben Langdon demonstrating stunt work. It’s like this Anime convention has everything!